Early Admittance Programs

[NittanyKitty]

Does anyone know if there are any "early decision" or "early admittance" programs in USA vet schools? Something like a binding contract where if you're admitted you'll definitely attend the school? My pre-med friend was accepted at Hershey using such an application process, and I'm wondering if there's anything like this for vet med.

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[VAgirl]

Try this.

http://more.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=498182

 

[jenniferrrrr]

this isn't mentioned in the other thread, but tufts has an early acceptance program. it used to be that they accepted people as high school seniors, but now you can apply as a sophomore and they take your sat scores into consideration (so you don't have to take the gre's early like some other programs require) and you just have to maintain a 3.4 cumulative gpa at the end of each school year and fulfill the pre-req's by the time you graduate (tufts barely has any). it's kind of nice because once you get in, you have the ability to go abroad or relax a bit before you take on vet school, since you don't have to work as hard to keep up a crazy high gpa, and you never have to take the gre's. ever. from what i've heard, it's a bit more competitive than getting in normally, but it's worth applying to anyway even if you think you're a borderline applicant- if you get rejected you can meet with them and they tell you why you weren't admitted and what you would need to change in order to be accepted when you re-apply your senior year. you get the choice to basically enter tufts whenever is most convenient for you- if you graduate a year early you can decide to enroll in what would have been the fall of your senior year, or if you feel like you need a break before starting vet school you can defer your enrollment for a year after you graduate undergrad. this differs from what tufts offers its normal applicants, since you generally aren't allowed to defer for a year after you're accepted unless there are extenuating circumstances. you can even decide in your senior year that you want to apply to other schools and not enroll at all at tufts; the decision isn't binding until you officially tell them that you're enrolling in the spring of your senior year, but as long as you keep up the 3.4 cumulative gpa and take their pre-req's you're guaranteed a spot.

the only catch is that tufts only opens this early acceptance program up to a few undergrad schools: tufts undergrad, umass amherst, wpi and uvm. i'm a dork so the main reason why i went to umass was so that i could apply early to tufts, but if you are interested in tufts it's something to think about.

here's the link:
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/academic/early_acceptance.html

 

[mbv]

Tufts admissions told me that they are phasing out the program. They have steadily been accepting fewer and fewer people over the last several years.

 

[jenniferrrrr]

i had heard that cornell was doing that, but i didn't know tufts was phasing it out, as well. i applied through the early acceptance program two years ago, and there were 7 people including me that were interviewed from all of the undergrad schools that have the program with tufts. i had heard that 14 had applied to the program that year, so about half got interviews. i know two others besides myself from my school were admitted (they decided to go to other vet schools), but i don't know how many of the people that were interviewed from the other schools were admitted. it's definitely possible that tufts is in the process of phasing it out, but at least in my somewhat recent experience, it's not impossible for qualified people to still get into tufts that way. i'd definitely still suggest applying early to anyone that does go to any of the qualifying undergrad schools, even if it's being phased out- if you get an interview, it's really good experience and if you get rejected, admissions explains to you why you didn't get in the first time around, which is really helpful for when you apply your senior year to tufts or other schools.

 

[mbv]

I applied the year before you and that's when I was told that the program was on its way out. Maybe they changed their minds! My year they only interviewed 4 people out of 16ish applicants and I believe they accepted only 2, maybe 3 (definitely not all 4 cause I was rejected! I know the 2 other people from Tufts undergrad got in but the 3rd person was from WPI). This was fewer than they interviewed & accepted the year before (I think about 9 applied, 6 interviewed, 5 got in). I think they said that they were having trouble with some of the early acceptance people being under-prepared for the program? When I applied I felt like they put a LOT more emphasis on grades/how many rereqs you had taken and maybe not enough on animal experience/commitment to the field. One person who got in my year isn't going to vet school at all. I was okay (after a while!) with not getting in because Tufts has never been a top choice for me and I did not reapply. The information that I got at the interview was really helpful and it was good practice. So yeah, I recommend applying if you qualify.